Five Years After George Floyd: We Remember, We Rise, We Build

Mural artist: Detour

By LaDawn Sullivan, Executive Director of the Black Resilience in Colorado (BRIC) Fund

Five years ago, on May 25, 2020, the world watched George Floyd die beneath the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. The video was excruciating. The pain was raw and familiar—especially for Black communities that have carried generational traumas of Black people brutalized, criminalized, and silenced for centuries.

But this time, something shifted – the cries weren’t only heard, they were echoed. Millions took to the streets, not just in protest, but in collective grief and righteous rage. Across the country—and around the globe—people of every background bore witness to what Black communities have always known: that systemic racism is alive and deeply rooted, and that silence is complicity.

That moment sparked something powerful and enduring in Colorado. It inspired us to turn pain into purpose and anger into action. Weeks after George Floyd’s murder, the Black Resilience in Colorado (BRIC) Fund was born on Juneteenth 2020. Our mission was—and remains—clear: to invest in the strength, vision, and leadership of Black-led and Black-serving organizations across Colorado. We knew then, and we know now, that the resilience of our communities has never been accidental. It has always been deliberate, courageous, and led by us.

Since its inception, the BRIC Fund has awarded over $5 million in grants and other resources to Black nonprofits tackling everything from youth mentorship and mental health to housing, economic opportunity, and racial justice. These aren't just line items on a spreadsheet; they are lifelines—fueling the frontline work of community healers, educators, entrepreneurs, and visionaries who reflect the very communities they serve.

During that time, we supported organizations during a pandemic that disproportionately devastated Black lives. Today, we stand with nonprofit leaders in the wake of broken promises to build equitable communities, embrace DEI and increase philanthropic dollars. Through it all, the BRIC Fund remains unapologetically Black—grounded in love, community, and a deep knowing that we are not a problem to be fixed. We are people to be invested in.

The fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s murder is not just a marker of remembrance. It’s a call to keep building. To keep demanding. To keep imagining. It’s an invitation to double down on our collective responsibility to dismantle the systems that allowed his murder—and so many others—to happen in the first place.

As we look to the next five years, BRIC is committed to growing into a permanent, community-rooted fund, resourced by those who believe in the enduring power of Black leadership and solutions. We're expanding our reach, amplifying our advocacy, and building a sustainable ecosystem where Black nonprofits, leaders and communities can thrive—not just survive.

We do this work because George Floyd should be alive.

Because Elijah McClain should be alive.

Because too many names remind us that “justice delayed is too often justice denied.”

But their memory calls us not to despair but to act.

To our community: Thank you for standing with us, fueling this movement, and believing in the brilliance of Black-led change.

To funders, philanthropists, and policymakers: This is your moment to do more than make statements. Join us in creating lasting structural change.

To George Floyd: We remember you. We honor you. And in your name and in the pursuit of justice, we continue to build BRIC by BRIC.